You may think you are smart using smartphones for Internet banking, but it cost a city resident, Mr Shabbir, over Rs 11 lakh —all because he responded to a phishing mail. It happened on March 29. On downloading the mail, Mr Shabbir found a PDF document, a link which took him to a fake Axis Bank website. The file requested him to update his account details, but realising it was a fake, he closed it. To his surprise, though, when he tried to use his Net banking account later the same day, he found he couldn’t access it. Assuming it was a connectivity problem, he contacted the customer care service of the mobile service provider. That’s when the bombshell dropped.
He was told that a duplicate SIM had been issued and he also received a message on his phone that a sum of Rs 50,000 had been credited to his account. A check later, he realised that the password had been changed and, between March 30 and 31 morning, a sum of Rs 11.14 lakh had been transferred to 22 separate accounts from his account.
“The attachment itself may have contained a keylogger which may have sent the password details to the hacker. No verification was done on the original number before duplicating the SIM. The bank, as always, was flexible on the transaction limit and placed no restrictions on the number of beneficiaries that can be added in a single day. Plus, there was no red flag or alert raised,’’ said a bank official.